After the Carnage

Book excerpt: Ten years after the much-acclaimed Swallow the Air, Tara June Winch returns with an extraordinary new collection of stories. A single mother resorts to extreme measures to protect her young son. A Namibian student undertakes a United Nations internship in the hope of a better future. A recently divorced man starts a running group with members of an online forum for recovering addicts. Ranging from New York to Istanbul, from Pakistan to Australia, these unforgettable stories chart the distances in their characters' lives – whether they have grown apart from the ones they love, been displaced from their homeland, or are struggling to reconcile their dreams with reality. A collection of prodigious depth and variety, After the Carnage marks the remarkable evolution of one of our finest young writers.